Teens will be sentenced as youths for Winnipeg machete attack

Manitoba prosecutors have abandoned their bid to see two teens sentenced as adults in connection with a horrific machete assault on a rival gang member.

The male youths, 15 and 16, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault for their roles in a four-on-one attack of a ranking Most Organized Brothers (MOB) member in the North End on the night of Aug. 13, 2012.

The Crown gave no official indication to provincial court Judge Wanda Garreck why it was abandoning adult-sentence requests in the alarming case — one that saw the victim suffer severe injuries after being chased down and hacked at with a machete and hatchet for several minutes on a public sidewalk.

Prior to the attack, the 22-year-old victim and other MOB associates went to a home on Boyd Avenue linked to the rival Indian Posse gang and used bats to knock out some windows. At the time, the two gangs were involved in a long-standing violent feud.

Four teens spilled out from the home and gave chase, catching up to the victim at Aberdeen Street and Powers Avenue. He was knocked down and repeatedly hacked. He suffered massive wounds to his legs and other body parts. When rescued by police and paramedics, one of his hands was found dangling and had to be pinned back on. Some of the cuts went so deep parts of his bone had been hacked out, court previously heard.

Two others charged in the case previously agreed to be sentenced as adults and received two-year jail sentences.

The two attackers who admitted guilt on Monday will be sentenced as youths in December. The Crown did not say what sentence it would seek in their cases.

The 16-year-old also admitted to breaking and entering a man's home to cause damage on a remote First Nation community. That incident came just a few months after he had been bailed out of custody in connection with the machete attack.